A Tale Of Two Cities
by ImagingThings
Summary: A story of two young people. Her from Sodom, him from Gomorah. Before, during and after the events of Genesis 19. Rated M for rape.
1. Adina's Pain

Her parents had died three days ago. Some weeks ago they'd both fallen ill with a terrible disease, as their only surviving child she'd taken care of them as good as she could; every day praying that they would survive. It hadn't helped. They'd died and hardly had they been put into the ground before the man from whom they'd rented their humble shack had kicked her out.

_She begged him to let her stay. She would work for him, anything; carrying heavy loads of water all the way from the well, cleaning out in the pig-yard. She would even sleep amongst the pigs at night, with nothing but the oldest and most worn out blanket to keep her warm. __She cried and begged him to show mercy. Didn't he understand? She had no other relatives in the city, no friends of her parents, no one she could go to. Fourteen was too young an age to be living alone. He simply laughed and had her violently thrown out of his big house, leaving her not only grieving over her lost parents but homeless as well. She had nothing but the rags she was wearing._

For two days now she'd been huddling her way through the city of Sodom, begging or stealing for food, when her legs no longer would carry her she found the nearest corner and cuddled down. Crying herself to sleep.

Her name was Adina, and it was a fitting name, for slender and delicate she was; having been born into the ultimate poverty her parents had seen it as no short of a miracle that she'd survived to adolescence.

Early in the morning the third day after her parents' dead she was awoken by loud yelling voices. Jumping to her feet she ran down the alley from where the voices had sounded; a young boy was being beaten by a group of men looking like they where in their thirties. Anger and rage filled Adina and she hurried forward, yelling at the men to leave the poor boy alone. Somehow she managed to make the men stop and the boy, looking no older than six or seven, fled the scene. The men looked at Adina in an odd an unnerving way.

Before she could follow the boy's example and flee as well one of the men seized her and threw her hard to the ground, violently removing her ragged clothing.

Pain. It felt like she was being split in two.

She knew what sex was, having grown up in a one-room home it was hard not to, but never in her wildest dreams, or her darkest nightmares, had she imagined this would be her first experience with it, her first sexual intercourse; being raped violently by a group of grown men.

She screamed, on top of her lungs, yet no one came, no one hurried to the scene to help her as she had to help the boy. At one point she was even sure she heard one of the men holding her yell to a by passer to "come and take part in the fun." What could she do? She was only fourteen, weak after days, weeks of starvation. They where grown men, judging by their clothing nowhere near as poor as her.

The torture went on the entire day. When one had been satisfied the next would come, an endless circle of pain only briefly pausing when one rose from her broken body and another threw himself onto her; violently forcing his erect member inside her. Occasionally one would turn her around as the rag-doll she was fast becoming; taking her from behind.

New men arrived while some of those who'd been there from the beginning began to leave, through the haze of pain Adina was sure she saw the man who'd started it all accept a handful of coins; so this was what she was becoming; their whore for the day.

Finally the last one seemed to be satisfied and those present ended the humiliation by reliving their bladders on her.

Shaking she pulled her torn clothes around her and began to weep. Blood was running down her legs from the repeated raping and she was covered in urine from the last humiliating act of the men. She was too weak to stand, too tired to care.

It was still dark when she managed to get up and limp away from the place. Each step sent needles of pain through her body. She couldn't remember how she got out of the city. It didn't matter; all that mattered for her was to come as far away from the dreaded place as possible.

She was stumbling down a small path when she suddenly saw someone in front of her; someone male. Giving of a short shriek she left the road and ran as fast as she could.

Branches swiped at her face, thorns cut through her flesh, making more blood run down her already bleeding body. All she could think of was getting away. Behind her she could hear the person pursuing her. He was yelling something; she had no intentions of stopping to hear what it was.

She tripped over a root, her head hit something, and everything went black.


	2. Eran's Sorrow

The pained screams rose above the city walls from somewhere within the city of Sodom. He knew what those fearful screams meant; it had been just the same when, once again the terrible memory stood clear in his mind:

_He found her the next day, just by chance as he came home from the trip to the nearby river. As he carried his newly catch fish proudly home he saw her, his beloved sister, dead, slumped against the wall of one of the houses. Blood running down her legs from where she had been violently defiled, a range of bruises on her neck; telling their clear tale of how exactly she had died. _

_As he was cradling his sister in his arms he noticed people coming out on the street. Crying he asked them why they hadn't interfered; couldn't they hear it? Hadn't she screamed? No one answered._

_As soon as they had buried her he left Gomorrah. His parents asked him to stay; crying they begged him not to let them lose their son as well as their daughter but he couldn't, couldn't stay in a city where people wouldn't even help an innocent girl. He would go to Sodom._

And now here he was; sitting outside the city walls of Sodom and here it seemed like things were just like back in Gomorrah; here people wouldn't help an innocent girl either. Eran, as his name was, hated it; hated that he couldn't do anything to stop the poor girl's pain.

"Dear Lord." He whispered, "Let our paths cross. Let me help her. Let me protect her."

The screams finally silenced, for a long while Eran feared the girl within Sodom had met the same fate as his sister; being murdered as well as raped, but the Lord had heard is prayers and after a while a young girl, dressed in rags and dripping in something which, by the smell of it was urine, came limping through the gates and down the path towards the place where he had his camp. Quickly he stood up and walked towards her; unfortunately the moment she saw him she shrieked and ran away from the path. He yelled after her; yelled that he didn't want to harm her, she didn't listen. Mentally he kicked himself; of course she wouldn't. She had just been raped. Of course she wouldn't trust a male person. Nevertheless he ran after her, just in time to see her stumble over a root, knocking herself out on a rock.

Carefully he went over and picked the unconscious girl up, carrying her back to his camp. For a moment he considered washing the blood and urine away from her then he thought better of it; after her traumatic experience she would not want anyone else to touch her, let alone while she was unconscious. Instead he started to cook some food, the very last of the bread and dried meat he had brought with him from Gomorrah, knowing that she probably would be hungry when she woke up.

The moment she woke up and saw him she gave a new shriek and bolted to her feet, ready to run. But this time Eran was prepared.

"I won't hurt you." He said, trying his best to make his voice sound trustworthy. "I am really sorry for what happened to you and I promise you I will not let it happen again. Please, you have to trust me."

Slowly her tensed body began to relax as if she either realized that she could trust him or, as another, in Eran's eyes terrible option, decided that he couldn't hurt her more than she had already been hurt. Yet she remained standing, looking towards the ground as if ashamed of something. Barely audible she whispered something about stinking, something about wanting to wash the filth off her. Of course; she did stink and she was covered both in her own blood and, Eran assumed, other people's urine. Smiling he showed her the way to a small creek he'd noticed the previous day, just off from the camp, and assured her that if anyone came all she had to do was scream, and he would come.

When she was gone he went over to her small bundle of belongings and took something from it; it was a dress, not anything luxurious simply a plain dress. It had been his sister's; he didn't know why he had packed it, other than the sentimental reasons, but now at least it could come of use. Carefully he tip-toed down to the creek where the girl was bathing and left the dress on a branch for her to find then he returned to the camp to wait for her.

He had just split the food into two potions, one small for himself and one bigger for her, when she returned; shyly smiling she sat down beside him, so she had decided she could trust him? Without any words he handed her the biggest plate and watched in surprise when she gobbled the food down faster than he would have thought possible.

"When…" He began uncertain, "when was the last time you had a decent meal?"

"I… don't remember." Her voice had an edge to it, almost like she was about to begin crying. "My parents where sick for a long time, they…" once again she had to pause, "they died three… four days ago. I just walked through the city for the first two days. Then…" a long pause followed, this, without doubt, was the hardest part. "Then it happened. Why? Why did they do it?" this time she broke down in tears, her slender body convulsing from it. Slowly, making sure not to scare her, Eran put an arm around her and just held her, letting her cry.


	3. Love

For the longest time they just sat there, two people brought together by the harshest of fates, she was sobbing violently; only then really letting go of the grief of losing her parents and the pain of her rape. And as Eran held her he felt hot and wet tears streaming down his cheeks; he too hadn't really grieved his sister's death, from he'd found her till this point it had been anger, not sorrow, which had been his main emotion. Looking down at the slender girl in his arms Eran smiled; the dress was a little too big for her, hanging loosely around her much-to-thin figure. She had a few rifts and bruises from her attack, but there was no doubt that she was beautiful; thick dark brown hair hung to the upper part of her back and through the tears a pair of large golden brown eyes looked at him, her facial features were delicate; her cheekbones marked, her nose slightly snub nose and beneath it her lips were thick and red. Only a great strength of will stopped him from bending down and taste the inviting mouth with his own; he knew he had to be extra careful with the girl, one wrong move from his part would send her fleeing away from him. Finally, after only God knew how long, it seemed like she had no more tears. Eran more or less expected that she would free herself from his embrace and return to her rigid posture beside him, instead she snuggled even closer to him; resting her cheek on his shoulder.

"Thank you." She whispered her voice like music, "For everything, for the dress, for the food, for this; holding me. But…" a faint blush crept across her cheeks and she looked to the ground "I don't even know your name."

"My name is Eran." He told her. "And you?"

"Adina."

As they sat there the stars slowly began to show on the sky, blinking down to them like they wanted to assure them that no danger would befall them tonight. Smiling Eran noticed that Adina had already fallen asleep; carefully, not to disturb her, he placed her on the ground and placed his cape over her. Then he put some extra wood on the fire, to assure it was big enough to scare wild animals away, and lay down beside her, slipped and arm around her shoulders and looked at the stars.

When he awoke the next morning a weight on his chest was making it slightly difficult to breathe properly. Opening his eyes he smiled at the sight which met him; thick dark brown hair obscured his vision; spreading out from her head like a fan, covering her face. Slowly, with trembling fingers, he reached down and removed the hair from her face, only to find her already awake looking at him with a smile playing on her lips.

xxx

She had though all men where the same; evil and wicked, only seeing her as an easy way to satisfy their sexual needs. Yet here was someone who'd shown her kindness, who'd food, new clothes and had held her without second thoughts when she finally had let go of her tears. As he looked at her at their eyes locked onto each other Adina felt a jolt go through her body, a feeling unlike anything she had ever experienced.

"_What are you doing?" ten-year-old Adina asked her parents. That day they had buried her brother, her last remaining sibling, who had been attacked by wild animals while hunting and torn almost beyond recognition. Through the night she had listened to her mother's silent sobs, now there was silence. Looking at her parents in their bed an odd sight met her; her mother was laying on top of her father, his hands running through her hair and down her back, their mouths pressed firmly together. She had been told not to look at her parents while they were in bed, now she couldn't tear her eyes away. As if they only now had heard her question they broke apart and looked at her._

"_It's what grown-up people do when they're in love." Her mother said smiling. "Your father and I, we love each other and because of that we do these, grown-up things. If we didn't we would never have had you, or any of your siblings. Even though the pain of losing them was terrible each time they joy of having you, having them, made it all worth it."_

"_But," Adina said uncertainly. "I've heard you. When you did that thing, it hurt you."_

"_Yes." Her mother whispered. "It does hurt. But it is a sweet pain, you don't really feel it. Your body too filled with joy. One day, sweet Adina, you will know the feeling yourself." _

Her mother couldn't know. How could she know that four years after that night her last remaining daughter's first experience with sex would be a violent rape? Then a thought hid Adina; her mother hadn't been talking about sex, she'd been talking about love. Maybe one of the reasons, other than the sheer brutality of the men, it had hurt so much had been because there was no love. Was this love? This feeling which made her heart beat twice as fast simply by looking into Eran's eyes. It seemed like there was only one way to find out; carefully she slipped on top of him, her legs around his, her hands resting on the ground on either site of his head, her face so close to his that her hair fell down around both their faces.

"What…" he began before she bridged the, no matter how small, distance between them and pressed her lips to his. At first he didn't do anything, letting her decide the pace, but after a few seconds she felt his hands on her back; pressing her down. Both of them they wished that the world would stop right there and then, covering them in a blanket of love. Only slowly, not really wanting to, they broke apart and rose to their feet, their hands locked together.

"Come, my sweet Adina," Eran whispered, "let's leave this place. Maybe somewhere we will find a place which isn't rotten as Sodom and Gomorrah."

They walked the whole day, only stopping briefly at one point for Eran to reach up and pick a fruit, lovingly slipping it into Adina's mouth.

With no warning the ground shook and a light erupted on the horizon. Slowly Adina turned towards the city of Sodom.


	4. The Destruction

Quickly Eran seized her and pulled her down behind a huge boulder.

"Don't look." He whispered. "Just, _don't look_!"

He couldn't explain why he knew it was so important that she didn't look towards Sodom; he just _knew_ it. The earth was shaking violently beneath them, Eran held Adina as close as he could without crushing her delicate figure; she looked at him with fear in her eyes.

"What's happening?" She asked, her voice shaking.

He had no answer so he simply sat there, comforting the girl in his arms, all the while feeling a great surge of gratefulness that she'd made it out; now that he knew her, and loved her, his heart stopped by the pure thought that she could have died before he'd even met her.

Neither of them knew for how long it went on. The sky went dark so there was no looking at the sun to determine the passing of the time, the only thing they could do was sit there, cuddled together, and wait.

"_Eran, what is it? What are those lights in the sky? And the noise! I'm scared!"_

"_Don't be Kezia. It's just thunder. It'll be over."_

That night he'd known what was going on; he'd been able to comfort his sister. Now, there was nothing he could do. He hated it. Adina was shaking almost as violently as the ground and there was nothing he could do to help her calm her fear, why couldn't he help her, really help her? He'd been unable to stop the rape of her, and now he was unable to stop her fear. The only thing he could do, they could do, was to pray vigorously that it would end, it didn't.

Something was falling from the sky. Whirling towards Sodom then exploding, making the ground shake even more than before, the first thing had hardly fallen before the next came, and the next, one after another in an endless fiery rain.

"I hope Lot and his family made it out of the city." Adina said, looking at the sky with a worried look in her eyes.

"Who're Lot?" Eran asked, despite the fear happy to have found something almost normal to talk about.

"Just a man who sometimes helped my father. He was really nice, same with his wife and their two daughters. They were somewhat older than me." there was a brief pause. "It was also him who gave us the news of my brother's death."

The ground was shaking. Something was raining over Sodom and, they thought they could see in the distance, Gomorrah as well but hidden behind their rock they were safe, as safe as it was possible to be in a situation like this they presumed. Whatever it was, whatever power had been unleashed upon the two cities they knew they would make it through. Eran of Gomorrah and Adina of Sodom, they knew it; fate couldn't have brought them together for it to end like this.

Suddenly a great light illuminated the sky somewhere outside the city, blinding them momentarily.

"What _was_ that?" Adina's voice was shaking.

"I don't know. Maybe a lightning. Maybe, just maybe this is just a really bad lightning storm."

But, as if to show once and for all that this wasn't just a lightning storm, a great piece of molten rock suddenly landed right beside the rock they had thought to be a safe place. Wasting no time they jumped to their legs and started running; out of the valley. Unfortunately they were heading straight towards a steep rock wall which would be impossible to climb, even if they _weren't _under an unnatural rain of molten rocks and something else, which _stank_.

"Eran. Look. The animals."

Looking the direction Adina was pointing Eran saw something which made his heart bolt with joy; all the animals were fleeing the valley; they had somehow, thanks to their amazing instincts, known what was about to happen; even though the valley would be destroyed all life wouldn't be lost, and what more; there was a way out.

"Come on." He took her hand and together they ran towards the herd. None of the animals sensed the two strangers in their midst; enabling Eran and Adina to run for the small exit of the valley along with the great herd.

As soon as they were out they parted away from the group and sank exhausted to the ground. Falling asleep in each others' arms.


	5. And They Lived Happily Ever After

When they awoke the next morning it was to a world so quiet as if all sounds had been removed from it. Getting up their eyes fell on the Jordan valley, or what was left of it; it was a desolate place now; no animals, no plants, no anything. Just a vast, bleak dessert.

"Your parents." Adina whispered. "They're dead. Dead, like everyone else."

Eran didn't answer, he had no answer; instead he just wrapped his arm around the girl whom he just a few days ago hadn't even known existed yet now loved with all his heart.

They started walking away from the valley, in a way it had always been their plan; leaving the valley. When they had walked a little they suddenly noticed a figure standing a little away; it was a woman. Simple dressed and carrying a bundle of something. Her head was turned back towards the valley while her feet were positioned as if she was still walking.

"That's…" Adina began uncertain. "That's Lot's wife. I'm sure. I met her only once; she was helping me, when my parents were sick. But, she's turned into _salt_."

She starred at the figure with horror and grief in her eyes. As if she'd hoped that at least _one _other person had escaped the destruction and now had lost that hope. Or, maybe not.

"Look." Eran said, pointing at the ground. "There are three other pair of tracks leading away."

Smiling Adina realized he was right; so Lot and his daughters had made it. Something, an incomprehensible force, had stopped his wife but he and his daughters had made it.

Hand in hand Eran and Adina left the frozen figure of Lot's wife and continued on towards a new life

_Children were playing in the shades of the trees of the small glade. Running around happily, climbing the trees, eating the fruit or swimming in the small creek. The older looked after the younger, making sure no harm would fall on their siblings; for siblings they were all of them, as long as they could remember they had lived in this beautiful place just a little away from the nearby city. They were happy and healthy all of them; a blessing had come to their parents so all ten children they had together were alive._

_And the parents looked at their happy children; smiling. They both knew of other times, of harsher times. Of death and pain and the destruction of two large cities. But that was not something they wanted to bother their precious children with. _


End file.
